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It's past midnight and Taehyung sees to it that he remains awake to catch the faint sounds coming from Jeongguk's futon and the dim smartphone light that follows the noise. He hears Jeongguk’s small sniffles, and Taehyung sits up and shoves the rest of the blanket to Jimin, quietly going after the younger Busan boy whose eyes and feet remain planted on the mat in front of the bathroom. Taehyung steps in between futons and duvets, ankles slightly brush and bump on Namjoon's hair and Seokjin's knee; it's difficult to walk in the dark with drowsy eyes, after all.
Jeongguk acknowledges Taehyung's approaching presence with a glance on Taehyung's feet, feels him walk past his shoulder as Taehyung opens the bathroom door, and Jeongguk hears running water. The younger boy peers inside, a hand on the jamb, watches his hyung's fingers reaching out to the water that came from the showerhead. Taehyung, in his loose white shirt, red basketball shorts, and bedhead, glances to his side. Jeongguk grips his clothes tighter.
"How warm?" Taehyung's voice is rasp and it echoes through the tiles. Jeongguk doesn't answer, blinks a few times and rests his eyes on Taehyung’s hand instead.
Taehyung experiments with the faucets for the right temperature. It can’t be too warm or it will open up the pores, increasing the likeliness of Jeongguk’s spring allergies. It can’t be too cold either because it’s nighttime and nighttime isn’t the best time fo cold showers —I mean — everybody knows that, Taehyung thinks. The older boy stops twisting and turning the faucets when it’s lukewarm enough, just the right temperature for Jeongguk”s sensitive sinuses. Taehyung’s eyes turns into crescents, lips thinned out for a smile, and Jeongguk takes the cue — ears pink because he doesn’t know why this hyung is smiling at him but whatever — so he enters the bathroom, starts to hang each article of clothing on the rack before positioning his back to face his hyung.
“Up, Jeongguk-ah.” The instruction comes in a whisper and Jeongguk obeys, arms in the air and let’s Taehyung take off his shirt, a slight chill prickles his shoulder and stomach as his trunk goes bare. Taehyung then gently tugs the garter of Jeongguk’s gym shorts, slides them down and they pool on his feet.
Jeongguk’s now left in his boxers, and he enters the shower, draws the curtain across until it’s only his silhouette that Taehyung sees. The younger boy then throws his boxers to the bathroom floor. Jeongguk starts to wash himself clean.
“Let me know when you’re done,” says Taehyung.
“Mhm. Thanks.” Jeongguk replies, soft but audible enough.
Taehyung then picks up Jeongguk’s shorts and boxers, the used shirt hanging on his shoulder. He throws them in the clothes bin before reaching for the door.
“Tae, don’t—“ Jeongguk hears the knob and alert him.
“I won’t, I won’t,” Taehyung replies assuringly, knows what Jeongguk means and leaves the door three inches open. He rests on the wall opposite the door, looks around the small room, five other bodies sleeping soundly with the electric fan swinging across the room. The running water coming from bathroom matches the electric fan’s rapid turns.
And like every night, Taehyung thinks of home in Seo-gu — of strawberry fields in the backyard, a mountain farther to complete the scenery. Lazy dry afternoons and quiet evenings. The people sleep as early as eight because there’s nothing else but passing expressways above. But Taehyung can always see the stars back home, and the blue and golden hours are unmatched.
Seoul is different, Seoul is tall buildings and furnished parks and polished treescapes. People in Seoul are fashionable and busy, and time runs faster than he’d like it to be. Taehyung wonders of today and tomorrow, if he will ever nail that part of Hoseok’s routine, because Jimin and Jeongguk do so effortlessly. He wonders of today and tomorrow, if he’ll ever get to hit that high note like Jeongguk. He can’t help but count the days and tally the ones in which his overall performance improved significantly, because their debut is just a season away, and Namjoon and Yoongi and Hoseok has been waiting for so, so long, and he’d really really like to catch up on Jeongguk. Because Jeongguk can do everything, anything.
Taehyung sighs, skims a hand across his hair and gets up from the floor and fetches his phone on the table.
The boy returns to his original spot and opens his phone’s camera, checks his eyes and the bags under, focuses it up close and pouts when he sees a growing acne on his nose. Taehyung tries to entertain himself as he waits.
Meanwhile, Jeongguk fixates on scrubbing every dead skin cell due to the dried sweat on his body. He makes sure he exfoliates thoroughly because Taehyung might not accompany him like this tomorrow night, because sometimes Taehyung forgets and falls asleep earlier than he likes, it’s a 50/50 chance, and Jeongguk never wants to disturb Taehyung’s —or anyone else’s — sleep. Sleep is sacred, especially in this lifestyle they all chose. It will be utterly terrible to ask Hoseok or Jin or Jimin to stay up late at night with him because only Taehyung is okay with this habit of his; because he never has to ask Taehyung to accompany him during his late night bath time. Taehyung just does—just does whatever he wants. So, yes, Jeongguk takes his sweet time in the bathroom.
It’s bad, it’s irrational, Jeongguk knows it, but it’s okay, because slowly he’s growing fond of Taehyung. So Jeongguk grins a bit as he remembers crescent eyes and boxy smiles.
A few minutes more pass through the night then Jeongguk finally gets out of the shower, draws the curtain open and dries himself with a towel. Jeongguk hears Taehyung’s faint humming, and he envies how he makes humming akin to singing, he’d like to join his humming too but Jeongguk always hesitates, so maybe next time. He drapes the dampened towel across his shoulder, puts on clean boxers and black gym shorts. Then he faces the mirror, brushes his teeth and does his simple skincare — foams up the cleanser and rinses — then pats toner on both cheeks. Overly simple by Korean standards, he remembers one of the make-up artist-noonas tell him, so he slabs a bit of moisturizer from the cabinet. He pulls a fresh white shirt and wears it. He turns off the lights and leaves the room, and Taehyung pauses from his humming.
“You good?” Taehyung looks up at him with slanted eyes and wide pupils, anticipating an answer from Jeongguk. The younger nods once, and so the older stands up from his spot, motions Jeongguk to get ready for bed. Taehyung is excited to sleep. Carefully they walk toward opposite ends of the room, and before Taehyung crawls back under the covers with Jimin, he greets Jeongguk to sleep well.
“Night, Guk-ah.”
“Night.”
The older smiles at that and closes his eyes, puts an arm across Jimin’s fetal form. By early morning, Taehyung discovers Jeongguk has moved himself and his futon next to his and Jimin’s.